Perversion is a rather disreputable term these days, when no one is allowed or expected to make any moral judgments, but it has a specific meaning which receives some of its ultimate expression in terrorism. Perversion has been defined as a sexual act involving deviation from what is considered orthodox or normal; it was originally defined as a "deviation from the original meaning or doctrine", literally a "turning aside" from the norm. In sexual practice, its most traditional meaning has been any sexual act that does not have procreation genital intercourse as its goal. Within this rather restrictive and archaic definition is the sine qua non of perversion:
Perversion represents a denial of the humanity of the "other"; as such it directly attacks the life force (libido) of the "other" (though often enough, the "other" voluntarily plays their own role in the psycho-sexual drama involved.)
Warfare has a long history of being defined (primarily by pacifists) as a perverse act, though in reality, it has a long, natural history. The Geneva Conventions were crafted specifically to minimize the most perverse aspects of war, ie the purposeful targeting of civilians, various types of torture and atrocity. Under any definition, terrorism is a perversion of warfare. Worse, it is a perversion of human nature.
Yesterday, al Qaeda released their most recent "recruitment film" for Jihad, featuring the desecration of two American soldiers' bodies. The Jawa Report has more information on this atrocity; it is brutal viewing, but necessary to fully grasp the nature of our enemies. The film is "atrocity porn" meant to titillate would be terrorists and Jihadis. Perversion always involves some degree of power and negation of the humanity of the "other" and it is quite clearly displayed in the photo Rusty includes.
The logic of the worst perversion and its facilitator, porn, is to constantly increase in intensity in order to achieve the same thrill in the pervert.
Societies that rely on, indeed are defined by, perversity can never rest until they have destroyed themselves and the "other" who their enactments require. Perversion is, at its core, life denying and life destroying, and the pervert is almost always doomed, when unable to master the impulse and control and channel it, to loneliness and isolation. For those who travel the full pathway, the only resolution is death, their own or their victims.
The Jihadis, among them the Palestinians and the death-lovers of Iran, are well along this path. Rather than build a life affirming culture in Gaza once the Israelis left, they could only redouble their efforts to destroy themselves and the hated life-affirming Jews, whose very existence is a provocation and a humiliation.
When a culture is perverted, the members of the culture must pervert themselves as well. The Palestinians teach their children hate, and that death is the highest aspiration in life. Dr. Sanity pointedly raises some questions about the effects of the Palestinian family culture and "structure" on the children who are shaped within it:
Males are encouraged to be psychopaths; females to be their willing victims and enablers; as well as breeders for the jihad. When you see large groups of men willingly blowing themselves up to kill innocents, you know there is some sort of psychopathy at work. When the only way to express "gender liberation" is for a woman to imitate the homicidal / suicidal rages of the males--you know there is a problem.
Consider also, how a child could grow up in any sense normal-- knowing that their mother and father think of them only as fodder for jihad and that he has no worth to them otherwise.
There is nothing life-affirming about the Palestinian culture:
Al-Aksa announce female bomber unit
A group belonging to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party announced on Monday that it had recruited 100 Palestinian women to launch suicide attacks against Israel.
The woman, who we are assured is honored by her status in the fundamentalist Islamic family (as depicted by the Jihadis), is nothing more than a brood hen for martyrs, and if shamed herself, can aspire to martyr status. What a perversion of the natural life cycle of woman!
Robert Avrech reports an interesting point that I was unaware of but which fits the thesis of perversion that is contaminating all of Islam:
There is a reason for the doctrine of "Kill the Women First" in serious anti-terrorist and sniper units. For when a woman becomes a terrorist, she turns against her very nature and becomes infinitely more dangerous than any man. Hence, Special Forces Units facing armed terrorists, mixed male and female cadres, are trained to kill the women first. [Emphasis mine-SW]
The Palestinians have been the bell weather of the Islamic Jihad, the core around which Jihadi ideology has condensed; the Jews represent the first dhimmis to invade the land of Islam and throw off the yoke of the Muslim since 1683 at the gates of Vienna. They have managed to pervert men, women, and children, whose lives are now devoted to murder and suicide rather than life. There is no future for such people; they have chosen death and all that is left is to decide how many innocents will die before their ideology is destroyed.
Perhaps the pain of the Israeli incursion and the strategic decapitation of Hamas will allow whatever is left of the Palestinian humanity to emerge from under the hated, perverse boots of the terrorists; life does have a way of asserting itself even in terrible situations. Unfortunately, the Palestinians behavior for the last several generations suggests there is more reason for pessimism than for optimism.
I would add that the events of today, where, in all likelihood, the Jihadis are responsible for the attacks on our friends in India, support the idea that they worship death. Adding another billion or so people to your list of enemies is hardly a life-affirming act.
Recent Comments